James Ferguson Global Shadows Summary

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Allen and Barbara Isaacman and James Ferguson explore globalization in Africa. Allen and Barbara Isaacman approached the viewpoint of globalization from a historical perspective. Compared to James Ferguson, he explored globalization from an anthropological perspective. In Isaacman’s Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development, they focus on the construction of the dam on the Zambezi river and how it affects the government and its people who live around the area. In Ferguson’s Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, he focuses on a Zambian Internet Magazine called Chrysalis, and how Africa is making its place in the modern world. Even though both these authors focused on different aspects of globalization in Africa, they …show more content…

In Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, he organized his book with collection of essays and these essays are from when he moved around Africa. His approach is more theoretical than historical, yet it has a historical tone. He used newspapers, Bank information, his own field working. This book is more opinionated than Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development. He criticizes anthropologist who study the culture, yet the fail to understand the reasons of why people are unequal in their culture and society. Ferguson expressed concern that Africa today remains the same as its past because it is generally described by its “"lacks and absences, failings and problems, plagues and catastrophes." Africans and their realties are often depicted in darker terms than the western world. When their states are called “shadow states” and economies as “shaded economies”. When Ferguson citizens he wants people to not be so blind by the negative views of Africa. Globalization is happening in Africa, but it is happening in an unfair way, and that is how its always been in society, especially in Africa. The economy is growing in the countries but it gets managed by the civil society which creates uneven modernity. Ferguson points out that globalization seems to be only including countries that show the dominant culture. But little do people know that globalization is happening in Africa. Africa is advancing and progressing in a moderate speed. Africa may be behind by years but that doesn’t mean they should be excluded from the good that globalization